John Markoff is researching the role of Artificial Intelligence and robotics in gerontology and whether technology can alleviate the pain of isolation that the elderly face at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. A longtime writer for The New York Times, he covers Silicon Valley, computers, and technology. He is the author of Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots (Ecco HarperCollins, 2015) and What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry (Penguin, 2005).